If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The WILL Waves have submitted their roster for the 2019 NWLA Tournament. The Waves are coming off an NWLA National Championship last year and bring back 7 of the 8 players from that roster.
The Waves will be led by Player/Manager Jacob Davey for the third straight season. He was the NWLA Manager of the Year last year and was named as the Manager for the All-Tournament team. Playing wise, Davey hit .326 last year and homered once. His tournament was highlighted in the Saturday night game versus Huntington Wiffle League, where he went 5 for 6 with a home run and threw the last inning of the game to close it out and secure the win.
After a barrage of awards last year, Jordan Castelli is backing looking to repeat his ways. Jordan was named the tournament MVP after a stellar weekend. He led the team in average with a mark of .359 in 39 at bats, and a .569 on base percentage was good for a team best as well. Castelli knocked 3 home runs over the weekend. His standout game came early Sunday morning, when he collected 6 hits in 9 at bats including a home run over the Home Run League. Jordan also earned the win from the rubber in WILL’s upset win in the first round of bracket play over 3rd seeded OCWA.
Austin Berger returns for his second year to the rubber for the Waves. Berger had a successful rookie season in Morenci last year. He pitched in 5 games and ended with a 3.82 ERA. He walked just 6 batters all weekend over 17.1 innings pitched. His standout games came on Sunday, when he went 2-0 with wins over HRL and GBL. Both of those leagues were atop the home run leaders of the tournament, with HRL leading all teams with 18 and GBL second with 16. Berger threw all 6 innings in both of the games, in the HRL game he allowed just 1 hit and 2 walks, while giving up 0 runs and striking out 11. Then, in the championship Austin walked 0 of the tournament leading bases on balls team, GBL, en route to a complete game victory.
Mike Graziani entered the lineup offensively for the first time last year and it turned out to be a great decision. He hit .310 with 3 home runs in the 2018 NWLA Tournament. Graziani’s standout game came in the opening round of the bracket play. He went 5 for 8 with a home run against the 3rd seeded OCWA Freaky Franchise. From the rubber, Mike also picked up a win in round 2 of the bracket versus HWL, and a save in the winners bracket final against Griffleball.
Rob Licht enters his third year of the three year team. Rob had work conflicts that forced him to miss the pool play round and most of the OCWA game last year. Nonetheless, when he was there he contributed to the success of the Waves. He homered in 2 of his 4 games played. His standout game came in the winners bracket final against Griffleball, where he went 3 for 6. Licht homered and doubled in that game, collecting 4 RBI’s to help send the Waves into the championship. In 2017, he led the Waves in regionals with a .400 average. Then at nationals that year stats weren’t available for WILL, but Licht had the lone 2 home runs for the team including the game winning one over MNWA in pool play.
The emergency sub turned home run hitter, Nate Morris will find his way to Morenci again in 2019. Morris was entered into the fourth spot of the lineup for bracket play and he took his chance and ran with it. Morris led the team with 4 home runs and played just 5 games. He hit .364 and led the team in slugging percentage with a .909 mark. He launched two over the fence and collected 6 RBI in the 10-3 win over HRL last year. Morris was scratched from the lineup in the championship due to hamstring issues. He has worked hard in the offseason to get it back close to full strength. Hopefully his hamstring is repaired and ready to compete this year.
Steven Keelon will man the WILL bullpen for the second straight year now. He threw in 5 games last season. In his first appearance, he went 1.2 innings of scoreless work against AWAA to keep the tie in the opening pool play game. In his final appearance, Steven got credited with the win in the winners bracket final pushing the Waves to the championship.
Josh Clopp will replace Tim Marra to round out the roster.
WILL is in Pool A at the NWLA Tournament with Brew City Wiffle, out of Wisconsin, and Wild and Wonderful Wiffle, out of West Virginia. Links to follow the games live can be found on the Waves page of the website.